What is A.I.R.E.?
The Register of Italians living abroad (A.I.R.E.) was established by Law No. 470 of October 27, 1988 and contains the data of Italian citizens living abroad for a period of over twelve months. It is managed by the Municipalities on the basis of data and information from the Consular Representations abroad.
Registering in AIRE is a duty, as well as a right, of each Italian citizen, and it is FREE. It allows access to several consular services and is a prerequisite to be able to exercise important rights such as:
- voting by mail in Italian general elections, as well as in a referendum, and voting to elect Italian members of the European Parliament;
- to apply for a new passport or other travel documents, and some certificates;
- to renew a driver’s license.
Who needs to register?
- all Italian citizens who transfer their residency abroad for a period of at least 12 months;
- all Italian citizens who already live abroad, either because they were born there, or because they became Italian citizens later in life, regardless of how their citizenship was acquired.
Who DOES NOT need to regsiter?
- Italian citizens who move abroad for a period of less than 12 months;
- seasonal workers;
- employees of the Italian government stationed abroad.
Penalties for not registering with the A.I.R.E.:
Citizens interested in registering with the A.I.R.E. must submit their request to the competent consular office no later than 90 days following their change of residence. This results in the immediate cancellation from the Register of the Resident Population (Anagrafe della Popolazione Residente, A.P.R.) of the Municipality of origin. Those who, having registration obligations, breach the provisions of Law no. 1228 of 24 December 1954, Law no. 470 of 27 October 1988, and the regulations implementing the aforementioned laws are subject to administrative fines, as provided by Law no. 213 of 30 December 2023. The competent authority for ascertaining and imposing the penalty is the Municipality in whose registry the offender is registered.
The procedure for ascertaining and imposing penalties is governed by Law no. 689 of 24 November 1981, Article 1, according to which “No one may be subjected to administrative penalties except by virtue of a law that came into force before the violation was committed”.